Manhattan
Borough President Gale A. Brewer is calling on City Hall to reject
Airbnb’s business

model and fight its efforts to legalize the now
illegal use of apartments for commercial use.

In a letter to Mayor de Blasio, Brewer warns that using residences as
unregulated hotels risks further reducing the number of affordable and
rent-regulated apartments in the City – right when they are most needed.
The practice also creates unsafe conditions for the renters, neighbors,
and visitors, she adds."The Administration must not jettison the tenant protections embodied
in the current laws and regulations or accept payment on illegal
activity that violates tenants’ rights," Brewer writes."In addition to
the dangers and nuisances posed by Airbnb’s business model, the illegal
hotel industry keeps substantial numbers of affordable housing units off
the market. Many tenants, seeking additional income, avail themselves
of Airbnb’s services and put themselves at risk of eviction." according to Brewer.In
the face of the State Attorney General’s intense investigation and
subpoena of their records, Airbnb has recently revealed another
strategy: to begin collecting hotel taxes on the transient use of
residential apartments. They claim that this revenue will be sufficient
to fund the Administration’s plans for the creation of new affordable
housing."New Yorkers who have chosen, and by their leases contracted, to live in
residential buildings have the right to quiet enjoyment of that
condition, and the protection of the laws that define such housing" according to Brewer.

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